


But It Will Be

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-War, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-16
Updated: 2011-07-16
Packaged: 2017-10-21 10:52:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything isn't OK, but people keep telling him that it will be, and downstairs there are broken bodies and blood. Harry doesn't think that everything is OK.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But It Will Be

He sits at the window, resting his head against the cool glass. The Gryffindor common room is empty, everyone long headed off to bed, and downstairs there are broken bodies and grieving families and blood smeared on the walls.

 _(But you can’t think of that Harry, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault. That’s what they say.)_

Almost unconsciously, Harry wraps him arms around his legs and leans onto his knees, rocking back and forth like it can protect him from the outside world.

“You too?” Ginny is standing nearby, arms crossed. “I can’t sleep anymore.”

She has scars now, but Ginny won’t say where they came from and no one else will speak of it and all Harry knows is that she has gashes on her arms and words on her hands and scars on her back.

 _(But he doesn’t know why.)_

 _(Or maybe he does, but he can’t think it because that would make it all horribly real.)_

Ginny sits across from him, tucking her toes under the edge of her red bathrobe and reaching out to clasp his hand.

“It’s going to be all right,” she says, almost without thought, staring out the window at the ruins of a battle fought four days ago. “It’s going to be all right.”

 _(Is it?)_

“No, it’s not.” Harry says the words shortly, looking directly at her. “They’re dead- Colin and Alicia Spinnet and Justin Finch-Fletchley and Fred and Snape and Terry Boot and Natalie McDonald and Susan Bones and Remus and Tonks-” He breaks off as his voice cracks. “Ginny, I barely even _knew_ most of them and now they’re dead because of a battle I decided to fight.”

“It was decided long before you came, Mr. Chosen-One.” Her voice is teasing but her eyes are kind. “People can only live with someone beating them every time they step out of line for so long.”

 _(But Hogwarts was supposed to be safe.)_

She reaches out one hand. “I knew them, Harry. And they were brilliant, kind, wonderful people.” Ginny’s voice cracks. “But I would bet my own life that each and every single one of them is proud of how they died.”

 _(Hogwarts wasn’t safe; Hogwarts wasn’t safe; they weren’t safe; Ginny wasn’t safe)_

“Can you tell me about them?”

The request catches her off guard. “Why?”

“I’m going to their funerals,” Harry says, in a dull, flat voice. There are tears that mirror her own running down his face. “I want something more than a name.”

 _(History will remember them as names, but I want to remember them as people)_

Ginny leans back, remembering, shadows crossing her face as her eyes darken.

 _(You were supposed to be safe)_

“Terry copied out all the maps from the schools books, so we’d know where we were going. The day before you came he used some charm and shouted to the whole dinner hall about how you and Hermione and Ron had escaped from Gringotts on a dragon. They beat him so badly- almost as bad as Seamus or Parvati, but they tossed him on the floor when they got back and he got up and spit in their face.” Ginny laughed. “He said that he’d been hanging around Gryffindors too much.”

Harry raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you know that sort of reckless stupidity is more our thing.”

 _(Is that how you got those scars?)_

“Susan- she was good friends with Hannah and Ernie, you know, and every time one of them got a detention she would show up and take the punishment with them. Hufflepuff’s mean it with the loyalty thing.” Ginny swept her red hair back from her face. “She was good with the kids too. I mean, they were all eleven or twelve and they were all so frightened. All the older kids were walking around bloody, and while they didn’t get punished as much, they still got it. Susan went on every mission to free first or second years that had been chained up.

Natalie was brilliant. She and Demelza used to brew up all of the potions we used- blood replenishing and pain killers and stuff like that.”

 _(What did you need blood replenishing and pain killing potions for? Oh, Ginny.)_

“I always forgot how young she was until she died,” Ginny whispered.

 _(These people are dead, they’re corpses, they are dead and they aren’t coming back.)_

 _(I’d forgotten how young we all were. Are.)_

Ginny was crying and he was crying too and they sat like that until the sun finally rose, leaning on each other for support, and Harry finally remembers what she first said.

“Everything isn’t all right,” he says, voice hoarse from crying.

“No,” she agrees. “But it will be.” 


End file.
